[SimoneFlen']

Originally Posted by Druss ↗

Well, this thread is going well...

All the drunks congregate in the 'tard playground, you should try there instead.

[winvens]

Originally Posted by Druss ↗

There must be more home brewers here!

I know there's a few at least, it's odd that no threads seem to have been made for this before, I thought it might be interesting to see other brewers set ups, collections, 'cellars' etc.

I've been brewing for the better part of 25 years, started off just helping out gathering fruit in the wilds and such (weird family tradition ) then started making the softer stuff.(almost alcohol free ginger beer and the like) before moving on to basic wines and the occasional beer kit.

I didn't start home brewing in earnest until around 2010, that's when the idea of having a proper 'cellar' really became a possibility.
I mainly stuck to the basics, just fruit juice and wine yeast, chucking in the obligatory chemicals at every turn as the books suggest we do.

Before long though I got sick of tasting the faint hint of campden tablets in every glass of wine, I went all natural in around 2014 and haven't looked back since.
It was a bit of an arse to begin with, lots of failures and very few successes, but where I really found my raison d'etre was in mead.

I'd tried brewing mead many times, never got great results though, the idea came to me one evening (while idly watching an X-Men movie ) that I could go super simple and just use a couple pounds of honey, a couple bottles of water, a teaspoon of bread yeast and a tablespoon of dried fruit per gallon. Using good old fashioned heat to kill off the fermentation whenever I wanted, then bottle and wait.
This turned out to be a bit of a revelation, the resulting wine was incredible, far better than anything I'd ever made before and dirt cheap to boot!

Several years later I've perfected the process, have around 40 gallons of the stuff in various forms (the black cherry mead...well, technically 'melomel', is particularly good!) and have found even quicker, cheaper and more efficient ways of brewing, bottling and storing (there's something indescribably satisfying about plonking a barrel of mead on the table, popping the tap and filling your mug, horn, glass or vessel of your choosing and just chilling out in the honeyed goodness!).

I've experimented with barrel ageing in hand crafted oak casks, medicinal draughts brewed with home grown herbs, 'freeze distilling' to achieve a spirit like substance of anything up to 45% ABV (can be rather dangerous, so don't try before you do your research) and a myriad of weird ingredients (including using fancy 'all natural, non pasturised, non blended, single apiary' honey that I did a deal with some weird Ukrainian beekeepers to get hold of!).

Anyway, I'm rambling, a lot of you already know I can go on about this subject ad infinitum!
Here's 'Bob's Brewhouse' (the sign on the door has seen better days, I'm going to 're-burn' it soon):

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Nice setup my man.

If you ever run out of fruit and get desperate, it's possible to create booze from toilet tissue. Just sayin'.

[Druss]

Originally Posted by winvens ↗

If you ever run out of fruit and get desperate, it's possible to create booze from toilet tissue. Just sayin'.

And I thought my 'apple, asparagus and lime' wine was weird!

I have to try this now, I'm holding you responsible if I get toilet paper poisoning or some such

[Mr_Shlaapu]

The lair of druss never ceases to amaze.

[Druss]

Finally re-burned the sign, the lettering is a little wonky but looks much better in my opinion

[Electriclarryland]

Jesus, I didn't think your collection was so massive. I really do like your set up, complete with growlers, you must share! 5 fucking stars for sure!

I've always wanted to dabble in making wine. I just haven't gotten around to actually doing it, which is sad because fruit is something my state is known for. I got a couple 5 gallon jugs, plastic... for the first go around. Maybe there will be Christmas wine, your collection is quite inspiring.

I know Geemonster used to do up wine for the longest time, imma get his ass to post his collection in here.

[Wren]

Love it.

[Druss]

Originally Posted by ElectricLarryLand ↗

Jesus, I didn't think your collection was so massive. I really do like your set up, complete with growlers, you must share! 5 fucking stars for sure!

I've always wanted to dabble in making wine. I just haven't gotten around to actually doing it, which is sad because fruit is something my state is known for. I got a couple 5 gallon jugs, plastic... for the first go around. Maybe there will be Christmas wine, your collection is quite inspiring.

I know Geemonster used to do up wine for the longest time, imma get his ass to post his collection in here.

Most of the stuff in there has been cobbled together over time in line with my own eclectic tastes (I had to look up 'growlers' by the way ) and grew exponentially from the original 'few bottles' when I realised I just couldn't stop brewing (I fell into the mindset of 'i'll brew that since it's cheap, quick and easy...wow, it tastes great and I can make it as strong as I want...cool, on to the next one despite having loads of the last one left' so on and so forth), I've done some pretty random stuff with regards to weird wines (sweet potato and asparagus among them...neither went well ).

My stuff is subject to an audience of approximately one however, Simone is tee-total and the kids aren't old enough to drink, I'm not one for human interaction in real life so I'm unlikely to be handing out bottles here and there to local randoms
Quite frankly though I'd happily give it away to anyone who asked, mead is sacred and should be shared, if it's honeyed goodness inspired anyone else to take up the craft then I'd feel an immense satisfaction.

I really can't fathom why more people don't take up the hobby, it's so simple and cheap to do, even if you have a super busy lifestyle, wine is very forgiving. You could just spend five minutes putting it together then forget about it for a month or so, come back later and siphon it into bottles and that's that! All in all about fifteen minutes work for a batch of good wine. There's a lot of misconceptions about brewing I think, the main one seeming to be that any finished product will be sub par compared to store bought, I can certainly testify that with a bit of practice, the opposite is true.

I do tend to try to incorporate my other hobbies into brewing, my garden isn't very big but I do have a few well established fruit bushes that I've grown from seed. Most years I get about 2lbs of redcurrants which, when added to a standard batch of mead (before and during fermentation of course) makes a truly amazing tipple.
I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate my affinity for cheese making, cheddar mead doesn't sound particularly good

[Druss]

I had some time on my hands and started playing around with the video editor on my Kindle, it's not quite polished but, here's a peculiar little video of my set up: